In the footsteps of Paul

We had been looking forward to visiting Ephesus since we arrived in Turkey, so we were delighted that the weather was sunny and warm in the morning when we set out. We had planned to take a bus from the modern city of Selcuk (where we were staying) to Ephesus as it is about 3km from Selcuk, but when we found out we had a 40 minute wait we decided just to walk there. It was a lovely day for a walk and we even got a ride for the last bit.

We began in the lower part of the ancient city of Ephesus, visiting the Church of Mary and the remarkable theatre (above). Here we used our phone to read Acts 19:23-41 in the Bible which talks about a riot where the crowds met in the same theatre – pretty mind-blowing to be reading about it while sitting in the same place!

Church of Mary

View from the theatre

Our next stop was the famous and beautiful library, where we also saw the ruins and forum around it.

Front of the library

Amazing facade

Walking up the Curetes Way, we saw many other stunning buildings – it was really cool to see how the city had been laid out and get a feel for the ancient city.

Curetes Way

Just wandering up the way…

Incredible views

Getting away from the throngs of tourists, we had a picnic on the grass looking out over the ruins – one of our more spectacular picnic sites!

Picnic time!

We decided to walk back to Selcuk – we took a bit of a crazy back road but got to our goal in the end – the last pillar of the famous Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World.

The last pillar of the Temple of Artemis

The next day, we went to the St John Basilica, where John was buried after having lived in Ephesus. We hadn’t realised that his grave was here, so this was pretty cool to explore.

St John’s Basilica

St John’s grave

Our final stop was the Archaelogical Museum, which turned out to be both interesting and tiny – so it gave us plenty of time to grab lunch before making our way to our bus to Bergama.